MONROE — Thanks to several fundraisers, eighth-graders at the Monroe Consolidated School have enough money to pay for a class trip to Washington, D.C., and on Saturday, many of their moms gathered to put icing on that effort, literally.

.“The kids are excited, this is one thing that they didn’t have to attend,” said Teri Dimas, whose son, William is one of the seven students — six boys and one girl — in the eighth grade at MCS.

Starting a year ago, the students, after deciding that they’d like to see the nation’s capital, planned and conducted a variety of fundraisers to cover the $5,500 cost of the class trip...Not knowing exactly if and when they’d reach their goal, the students and their parents also made plans for additional fundraising, and toward that end scheduled a session on Saturday with Janice Fogg...The owner and operator of a Pampered Chef franchise, Fogg over the years has donated her time to work with numerous groups in Monroe to help them make money for various endeavors.

Two days ago in the Monroe Town Hall, she was teaching MCS parents how to make eye-catching baked goods, such as an edible mouse made out of a Hershey’s Kiss, a long-stemmed chocolate-covered cherry and slivered almonds...Fogg also demonstrated how brownies, with a little imagination and the right design, can be transformed into season-specific treats, such as footballs and Easter eggs.

Dimas and her fellow moms agreed that what they learned from Fogg could help generate some spending money for the upcoming eighth-grade class trip or might be left as a “nest egg” for a future group of MCS students...Class trip

She said the current eighth-graders will fly out of Boston to Virginia, where they’ll stay at a hotel, and from June 3 through June 7, they’ll take a commuter train from Arlington, Va., to Washington, D.C., daily. Dimas said while in D.C., the group will meet with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, adding that the students are eager to see firsthand what they’ve been studying in the classroom...“They want to lay their eyes on the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence” and also to explore the White House and the Capitol,” said Dimas.

“We are there” as to financing the trip, Dimas said before returning her attention to Fogg, who was displaying a multi-use pan that could be used for baking a lot of delicious stuff...jkoziol@newstote.com..